The Fox and the Prince
by Crystal Meadow
Summary: Leon remembers a story while visiting the shop. A cuss word here or there because it is Leon.


"Hey D, you here?" I yelled from the door. D appeared from behind a corner and glared at me. I only gave him a smile and his glare intensified.

"Detective, I'll have you know that this is a pet shop, not a café. I will not make tea for you every time you show up," he said with a cute little glare. Wait, did I just think–never mind.

"Oh well," I said forgetting my previous thought, "I guess I'll just have to take this raspberry and white chocolate cheesecake I bought at the new bakery next to the precinct and-" I had already brought the cheesecake in front of me, and by the time I got that far, the count was hovering around the bag with puppy dog eyes. After a minute he grabbed it out of my hands and went to go make the tea.

I scowled and looked down and flexed my fingers. Those dumb nails of his caused a welt. I sighed and made myself comfortable on the couch. I deeply inhaled and scrunched my nose at the incense, though it wasn't as overbearing as when I first entered the shop a year ago.

The count must've had tea prepared regardless of what he said because only after a few minutes he came back out with a fully loaded tea tray. He set it down and started cutting up the cake. I quickly poured myself a cup of tea so that he wouldn't add his usual 20 cubes of sugar. As soon as I was about to take a drink, I felt about twenty sharp pains in my leg.

"Gyahh," I screamed while spilling tea all over the goat thing while the cup, luckily, fell on the couch. I bent down and pulled it off my leg by one of its horns.

"Now, now T-chan, you shouldn't do that to Detective-san," D lightly admonished from around a bite of cheesecake. I scowled at the light rebuke that 'T-chan' got and tossed him across the room. I heard a growl but nothing else came to attack my leg. I bent over and looked at my jeans that were now slightly bloody and had teeth marks. Really, I got bit so many times by the stupid thing that I have a pair of jeans that I only wear here. I need to get a new pair soon since from the knee down is full of teeth holes.

"You shouldn't treat my pets so harshly Detective-san," D said in a light tone, now cutting himself another piece of cake.

"Ah, the goat thing's fine," I said and got the cup again. I looked inside to make sure that there weren't any hairs and poured myself another cup of tea. I took a bite of the cheesecake and barely swallowed. I hate sweets, and yet, every sweet shop in a ten mile radius knows me on a first name basis. I took a drink of the tea to wash out the sweet flavor.

"Well Detective, did something happen? You are very quiet today," D said putting down his cup and looking at me.

At first I wasn't going to tell him anything about the murder case I was on. It was some sick bastard that liked targeting young girls and would always carve an animal into their back. There was no rhyme or reason to the murders, and I don't think that even D would go that low.

"You don't wish to share?" D questioned. After a moment I leaned my head back and sighed in defeat. I slowly started to talk abouy what happened, about the entire case since a week ago. My mind let my mouth go on autopilot as I really thought about Count D.

I said to myself I wasn't going to tell him, he didn't need to know how much these types of cases affected me. I nearly cracked yesterday when he looked at me when I walked in, but I held it together and acted like normal. Then the bastard went and asked and I couldn't say no.

It really wasn't fair. He had all of this control over me, while I had none over him. I never used to rely on someone like this, someone that I could come to after a case and say that this shit wasn't right, and god, 5 teenage girls all before 18. Maybe I would talk with Jill, but mostly it was just a pack of cigarettes and a 24 pack of beer. When did I start coming here to vent my frustrations? When did I come to think of the Count as more than a walking felony? I don't even drink or smoke as much as I used to because of the man's whining.

There was a story about this sort of thing that I read back in junior high. I know there was. Was it about a fox prince? Maybe be it was a fox and a prince, yeah, that sounds right. I think I remember something the fox said.

I was so deep in thought that I didn't notice the Count giving me a worried look. By now I had stopped talking and fully concentrated on trying to remember. I just kept staring at the ceiling until the fox's words came back to me.

"Men have forgotten this truth, but you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed," I muttered, feeling accomplished for remembering.

"Are you all right Detective?" the count questioned. I finally noticed his worried face and snapped out of it.

"Yeah, I'm fine D. Thanks for the tea, I'll be seeing you." I got up and waved and toward the door. Unfortunately, I really meant what I said. I did feel better now that I got all of that off my chest and told him. I don't want to change though; I don't want to have to depend on someone else when I never had to before. I guess I really have been tamed. D was oblivious to these thoughts though, and shot me a worried look before he gave a reluctant nod and showed me out.

"Thank you for the cake Detective-san," D said. He was still looking at me funny so I turned towards the street.

"Yeah, thanks for he tea and stuff," I said in an airy voice, trying to dispel his worries. I gave a wave goodbye and started down the street back to my apartment.

I can't really imagine not coming by the pet shop with all of its weird and dangerous animals and having tea with their master. I'll bet that he'll even try to disappear one day without saying goodbye just because he thinks that he's so special. Well, he'll have to learn a thing or two about responsibility, because unlike the story, this fox ain't going _nowhere._

"_And damn D, I don't care what the hell you are. Pushin' someone off a flying boat is no goodbye." –Leon_


End file.
